Notes on Giant Run - "Cheap Date Night In!"

Made a stop at Giant today - as predicted based on the coupon offer text, the $3/$15 meat coupon definitely works without/before the BonusCard is scanned.

Porterhouse and T-Bone steaks measured in packages from ~$20-$30 retail ($10-$15 after BonusCard discount) - which makes it hard to use the "buy $15 of steak" strategy I mentioned before. Basically about the best you can do on the steak is to buy the smallest package available, around $20 retail, use the $3/$15 coupon, and then scan your BonusCard to get a $20 package for $7. Still a great (and oh so freezable) discount at 65%.

Those of you who are more "housebound" because you're parents to little ones can appreciate the value of a post-kids'-bedtime "date night in".

Here is a sample of a date night in based on price ranges of items that I picked up today (see our discussion of weekly deals and matchups at Giant):

2 Porterhouse Steaks - $7 after $3/$15 coupon
2 ears of corn, grilled, ~$0.34 on sale
1 watermelon @$3.99, - we'd eat ~$1 worth for dinner
1 Ben and Jerry's pint - $2 after $0.50 manufacturer coupon
1 can ice cold Barq's root beer for hubs - $0.18 after Coke 12-packs deal
(water for me)
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Total consumed: $7 + $0.34 + $1 + $2 + $0.18

=~$10.52 for a quickly-prepared dinner of "splurges", and no tips to pay! (Though I could prorate the pennies of propane, the Heinz 57, the free-after-Cats-and-coupons butter, and salt and pepper if you really wanted me to...) Did I mention that I ended up with half of my steak leftover for today's lunch? Maybe that would bring the price for the sample dinner date down another $1.75. ;-p

This date would have normally cost around $26.91 at retail grocery prices or upwards of $50 for a sit-down dinner out (babysitter not included!), for a date discount of up to 80% or more. That's what I call a cheap date. :)
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